A Mirage Of Milk And Honey

Epilogue

Fouring Palace was, to Aedis' displeasure, the last place he wished to be. 

Just like Upios, it held all those memories. Those images of the dead haunted his every step through the palace. It was why he'd elected to spend his time with the military—with the regiments stationed north, where he wouldn't have to stare at a seat once accompanied by one of the many he'd lost.

But visiting Fouring Palace was also unavoidable, so unlike the ghost kingdom of Upios, that devastation that loomed around every corner, that slept in every bed and stared out every window had lessened over time. It was like he'd built an immunity to the heartache and grief that came with the memories of the palace.

Aedis stared at the flaxen, marble floor—Zemira and Chip to his right.

The throne room was, as many throne rooms were, large and ostentatious. Fouring was made of a sand coloured marble so polished it reflected the sun's light, which shone through the large, arching window behind the six thrones before him. The ceiling of the narrow but spacious room was high and had once held a brilliant crystal chandelier that sent beams of golden reflections shining throughout the room. On either side of the raised dais that held the six thrones, were two statues so tall they reached the ceiling. The women wore billowing linen dresses etched in stone and each holding an ornate, golden spear.

Brilliant and pretentious.

At least, it had once been so. Now, the marble was scuffed, one of the statues was crumbling, and the chandelier was long gone.

Ondine, The Empress of Osheya, sat on her respective throne with a stern expression that made Aedis feel as though he was being scolded.

"You three are imbeciles." The Empress seethed.

So, yes. They were being scolded.

"We had no choice–" Zemira began.

"No choice!?" Her Imperial Majesty cut in, "You had no choice but to run away?"

"We were not running." Aedis spat out, "This was important."

"More important than winning a war?" Ondine hissed out, "What were the three of you thinking?"

"We were granted permission by The King of Nileau," Aedis said, gaze meeting the silvery eyes of The Empress.

Ondine laughed, "You were granted permission by The King of Nileau." She repeated, "He is not your king."

"It was important!" Zemira yelled out, struggling to display political decorum when faced with Ondine, a woman she'd known her whole life.

"What was?!" Ondine spat back, "What was so important that you abandoned your stations? What was so important that you disappeared, only to reappear beaten to a pulp and leaking blood all over my palace floors!?"

"Yvette!" Aedis yelled, "Yvette was what was so important."

Ondine stilled, her mind working through his words, "Yvette?" She asked slowly.

Chip sighed, deciding to join the fray, "Almost four moons ago, when you requested Zemira and I do an annual checkup at each of the Nileau's Defence Posts, there was an incident. Something in the forest was creating vast amounts of Ether and when we found this something..." Chip paused, mulling the words over in his head before deciding on bluntness, "It was a Mortvi. We discovered that she'd been brought back by The Seven Witch Queens. That Yvette had been brought back, except..."

"She wasn't Yvette any longer." Ondine finished. She knew of Mortvi's. She was old enough to have heard legends from centuries before she herself had even been born. An Apaios to her core, and one of the few people who had known Aedis before The God's Quietus. Before he'd... disappeared. 

"Where is the girl now?"

"She–" Zemira stalled, before amending, "Honey is in Coli'Aywa. She was...  distressed when we first found her and we decided it was best not to tell her that we knew who she'd been before and..."

Ondine leaned back, thinking over what to do.

In the silence, Aedis couldn't help his thoughts from darting back to earlier that day—to Honey.

The steadily healing cuts on his face itched at the reminder, but he was soon snapped out of his thoughts by Ondine.

"I'm sure you all have some idea of what to do," She began, "but forget it."

All three went to protest, but The Empress cut them off, "I have no intention of sending you to retrieve her—especially not with recent developments. I need the three of you here, helping me to win this war."

That had the trio's attention, the haggard tone of voice and dark eyes suddenly registering.

"What developments?" Aedis asked, brows furrowed.

Ondine sighed heavily, "Oreya's begun a series of ambushes on the posts of Nileau." She said, and Zemira almost took a step forwards in alarm, "She's initiated a number of small attacks that make me believe she is testing the defences of Milda's Post and Twelf's Post."

"She's trying to cut off the access between Osheya and Nileau." Aedis spelled out, and Ondine nodded wearily.

"We believe that Vika is trying to lay siege to Nileau, trying to push them into a corner. If the northern territory is surrounded by enemies, I imagine they may feel a need to form an alliance with Oreya."

"But there's thousands of Osheyan refugees in Nileau! They could be persecuted by Vika if she seized control." Zemira exclaimed, and Chip nodded along with her.

"If Vika simply forms an alliance with Nileau, that may not be the case." Chip said, and Zemira spun to glare at him.

"I am aware of that, but do you really think that Vika would be content with cornering Nileau? Yes, it puts Nileau at an impasse, but Vika knows the country could be of much more use to Oreya if it were under her command. She intends to scare them into submission, and then use their armies and resources against Osheya. We wouldn't stand a chance."

"Which is exactly why you should not have left without warning!" Ondine yelled out.

"What is it you plan to do then?" Aedis asked, and Ondine glared for a moment.

"There is a fort on the western side of the Wishbone River currently being used as a military stronghold. The three of you will be in charge of attacking and claiming the territory in order to push Vika's forces back."